1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wearing apparel for medical patients. More particularly, the invention relates to garments or wearing apparel of the type intended for use by, without limitation, medical patients while going through one or more various medical diagnostic procedures involving examination, by medical personnel, of the upper part of the body.
2. Prior Art
Hospital and/or medical patient gowns have been designed, for the most part, for convenience of the medical community, rather than patient convenience and comfort. Although substantial advancement has been made in the art relating to medical patient attire, the advance in medical science, medical procedures and medical techniques has overshadowed and outdistanced the advancement in medical patient wearing attire or apparel.
One of the reasons for the lag in the development and/or advancement of new and/or advanced medical patient attire is that medical procedures, when first used on patients, are often not standardized because early techniques used to perform a particular medical procedure are usually developed and designed for the benefit and/or convenience of the medical community rather than the convenience and/or comfort of the patient on whom the procedure is practiced.
Another reason for the lag in the development and/or advancement of medical patient wearing attire is that much of the new development is made by the patient or former patient who, after having gone through a particular medical procedure and having been made uncomfortable and/or embarrassed by the required wearing of uncomfortable and/or embarrassing hospital attire, designs and/or develops new wearing attire for use by medical patients who shall go through the same or similar medical procedures.
A much used and well known hospital patient wearing attire is the open back, closed front, short sleeve hospital gown. This solid front panel garment, which is secured by closing the open back with ties, appears to have been designed for hospital staff convenience without consideration for patient comfort or vanity. Although this much used hospital gown is convenient for performing some medical procedures by the medical community, the gown is not convenient or appropriate for some more advanced medical procedures, particularly those medical procedures that involve the shoulders and/or chest area of the body. A modification of this well known patient attire is taught by Janzen et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,578. Janzen, et al. teaches a modification of the open back hospital gown with selectively openable upper front panels, which open from the neck across the shoulder and along the full sleeve to the arm pit area of the gown. The undesirable and embarrassing short, open back features of the typical hospital gown are retained in the invention, which completely overlooks patient comfort and convenience in the gown that is designed for the convenience of the medical community.